The civil right achievements of Martin Luther King are quite justly the focus of the annual birthday commemoration of his legacy. But it is remarkable, as I’ve noted before on this holiday, how completely his vehement anti-war advocacy is ignored when commemorating his life (just as his economic views are). By King’s own description, his work against US violence and militarism, not only in Vietnam but generally, was central – indispensable – to his worldview and activism, yet it has been almost completely erased from how he is remembered.

King argued for the centrality of his anti-militarism advocacy most eloquently on April 4, 1967, at Riverside Church in New York City – exactly one year before the day he was murdered. That extraordinary speech was devoted to answering his critics who had been complaining that his anti-war activism was distracting from his civil rights work (“Peace and civil rights don’t mix, they say. Aren’t you hurting the cause of your people, they ask?”). King, citing seven independent reasons, was adamant that ending US militarism and imperialism was not merely a moral imperative in its own right, but a prerequisite to achieving any meaningful reforms in American domestic life. Click here to read Greenwald’s full post

The horrific crime happened on Friday. I couldn’t log on to the internet that morning, where I was staying. I looked at Facebook, and read a post on the newsfeed about how children must be wondering why their parents are hugging them and telling them how much they were loved. I knew something had happened, and then heard bits and pieces, but avoided getting sucked into the Matrix dialogue. It wasn’t until Monday afternoon, when I went on my walk in the late afternoon, that I looked to Stefan Molyneux, to listen to his latest, and in the course of listening to the podcast of the latest Sunday show, he made reference to his message about his reaction to the Connecticut shootings.

The elections have fallen heavily upon a body of individuals who took their passion and pushed with all their heart and mind, to throw back the tentacles of the State, that grows exponentially, without pause.

Activists who thought there was momentum, and a large enough constituency whose consciousness was elevated and was present to the surreal course of policy, finance, and power, unsustainable, and accelerating towards a point where the mask of government as good, and benevolent, caring, and essential would drop away in large proportions. But alas, most are firmly connected into the matrix. And the losses this past Nov washed away any delusions to the contrary.

Gadfly Radio will be back soon. I want to speak with friends about what happened, what we lost, what we got and what is possible.

Subscribe to the Feed

Posts

The status quo of education in the U.S. is destructive to our Nation, and to ignore this truth is to be numb, unconscious or in denial of reality.

"If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves. We have even squandered the gains in student achievement made in the wake of the Sputnik challenge. Moreover, we have dismantled essential support systems which helped make those gains possible. We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament."--A Nation At Risk - April 1983

Drug War Clock for Current Year

Police arrested an estimated 858,408 persons for cannabis violations in 2009. Of those charged with cannabis violations, approximately 89 percent were charged with possession only.
Source: Uniform Crime Reports, Federal Bureau of Investigation Your tax dollars at work--but for whom?

Search Site

The Gadfly

Dedicated to considerations of justice and the pursuit of goodness… "to sting people and whip them into a fury, all in the service of truth." --Plato on Socrates